[aroid-l] Bonn University Botanic Garden - Amorph. titanum flowering
- Subject: [aroid-l] Bonn University Botanic Garden - Amorph. titanum flowering
- From: S*@aol.com
- Date: Wed, 7 May 2003 23:57:21 EDT
As if we don't have enough excitement from Craig Allen's reports of the
Fairchild rare double flowering now taking place, I have recently heard from
Wolfram Lobin at the Bonn University Botanic Garden that they are expecting a
monster of a flowering later this month.
The plant now in bud is the same specimen of Amorphophallus titanum which
flowered in summer 2000, attaining the height of 257 cm, and recorded as the
third largest inflorescence in cultivation. A few months after flowering in
July 2000, the plant developed an enormous leaf which grew for 17 months. At
the last repotting in January 2003, the tuber, which weighed 36 kg prior to
leafing, had attained an astonishing size of 78 kg.
Their new web page is:
http://www.botanik.uni-bonn.de/botgart/amorpho2003.html
You can see images and charts that compare this year's flower development to
the 2000 flowering. At its current rate of development the flower should be
opening in about 2 weeks. To take advantage of all the details on their web
site it helps if you can read German, but their visuals convey the essential
story.
For Amorphophallus nuts out there, the Titan season in kicking in big time!
We are all in for a wild ride.
Donna Atwood
